el_freddo

Down with LED and HIDs! Halogen all the way for me. And what’s with the 55w globes? I’ve got 130w globes in my driving lights. You don’t need much more than this in three or four lights! Added that the “cool white” light is more like a blue light, it’s a very unstable light wave and thus is why they look so glary to oncoming drivers - but also look good to the driver as a driving light, they’re not getting all the thrown light back to them. Cheers Bennie

Going by what 3pin said, it could be a leaking injector or two. Other thought is the Idle Air Control Valve is dodgy or incorrectly adjusted. Throttle position sensor could be cleaned up and reset. Have you checked for codes? Cheers Bennie

Old fuel could be your issue. It certainly doesn’t help! My RS turbo liberty is waiting for some work. It won’t start without starter fluid OR putting a wad load of fresh fuel in the tank and cycling the fuel pump to get the fresh fuel to the injectors. Cheers Bennie

Try checking fuel level in the tank then confirming that the fuel pump runs. It could be a dead efi pump. Does it start with starter fluid? That will tell you there’s a fuel issue. Also check all fuses... just in case it’s that simple. Cheers Bennie

Ah one of the elusive fin tailed brumby/brats! You’re probably the only one here with this extended tray brumby/brat/MV! But definitely not the only one here with a brumby/brat/MV Loads of info for anything you need to know Cheers Bennie

Only thing I do after scraping off the old gasket is to wipe the mating surfaces with a white spirit like mentholated spirits. Then gasket on and bolt up to required torq specs. Cheers Bennie

My aftermarket gauge is T’d off the factory oil light switch point. It works a treat and is well worth the effort in my opinion. Cheers Bennie

Knock the two roll (or cotter) pins out. Use the correct sized punch as the inner pin passes through a hollow section in the diff stub. Get this wrong and you’ll be in a whole world of hurt. I’ve been there, done that. Get the inner CV cup moving on the diff output spline as these weld themselves together with rust if not removed “often”. Once that’s moving, jack up the rear wheel on the side that you’re removing the CV shaft. Remove the strut mount bolt and swing the hub down lower to release the CV shaft off one set of splines. The other side should just pull out. Install is the opposite of removal Cheers Bennie

For the snorkel I’ve used the Pajero NJ NK NL snorkel on my L series. With some sand and a heat gun I was able to bend the elbows back to meet the A pillar and still look tops. I’m not 100% sure how it would look on the MY body though. Here’s mine for comparison, my edges are squarer than the MY. I’ve properly used it once with the bow wave water 3/4 of the way up the bonnet Cheers Bennie

This one is factory turbo with WIAC intercooler. 2L engine. The US varient is the Legacy SS from what I understand. Cheers Bennie

This is sad. Better idea, sell the RX7!! Seriously though, you’ve gotta do what’s best for you and your situation, even if it makes a few hard board members shed a tear or three Cheers Bennie

Here’s a suggestion... don’t get airborne!! There’s no traction when airborne and to me (maybe a few others too), traction is what off-roading is all about! Cheers Bennie

Nice ride. The slow start up could be simply due to not being started for some time I hope the getting to know you process goes well! Cheers Bennie

My two old skool subi’s together, now sporting the same rims together but with different boots. It took me a couple of days to fully come around with the new look of the brumby but I’m really digging it now! Can’t wait for some planned upgrades on the brumby, but I am really enjoying just driving it atm! Cheers Bennie

Looks like it’d go like a cut snake! We need more pics of this thing once it’s outside! Cheers Bennie

Ok, got pics! This pic shows just how long the L series AWD locking centre diff pinion shaft really is: The EJ pinion shaft ends behind where the second straight splined section is. The OBX LSD is up front. The L series low range side gears are sitting where they would be with both cases joined together. You can see how close this comes to the LSD housing. You might also make out the shaving of the LSD retainer bolts, if not, here's a better pic: Locking centre diff, you can see the dog clutch in front of the diff: Here's my first modified pinion shaft with it's very crappy weld job. Apparently it spent the first part of its life behind an STi turbo engine in a brumby. I guess my little EJ22 L series was too much for it in some soft sand at Lancellin when it let go (we were loaded up for our trip out west). No shaving of the crown wheel in this pic. In this pic you can see the shaving on the outer edge of the teeth on the crown wheel: Low range oil feeders for cooling of the low range gears on long hill climbs - works a treat, I have no whining with my low range: For the EA application that's probably about all the pics I have to share. The others that I have are specific to mods required for the EJ dual range. All of the above pics are of my L AWD locking centre diff gearbox with a phase 2 (8 bolt) EJ gearbox I hope that answers a few things for you IROCDUDE89! And I understand if there's any wet undies, really though, it's kind of expected Cheers Bennie

That’s right! So your mechanic probably didn’t check that or remove the flex plate from the donor engine. I’ve also seen a cream coloured plastic plate as well. Cheers Bennie

1988 was a good year: I’m not sold on the drugs being good fun! But I do agree about the collecting of cars and parent’s lectures... I just wish I lived closer to m&d’s place where most of my cars are stashed! It’s pretty awesome of you to collect, fix and “re-home” these awesome Subarus! Gotta keep them alive so the aftermarket parts industry keeps making bits! Cheers Bennie

Just make sure that RX box is AWD if that’s what you want. Over here it was pretty rare for an RX to have an AWD box! I know they’re standard in the RXII coupe. We didn’t get them over here Cheers Bennie

Yeah fair call. I forgot about that detail! Cheers Bennie

Why would you be doing ANY work in the car? That’s just nasty and seriously painful! Maybe you’re right about the journal passages etc, it was ages ago we pulled an engine down just short of splitting the block in this fashion. @Souperoo - was the tensioner a genuine item or aftermarket? We had an aftermarket one go bad within 10k km. Replaced it with a good used genuine item and it’s gone the whole distance of the timing belt change interval without issue. Cheers Bennie

Ok, we need to clear a few things up here: - firstly. When talking about these gearboxes we need to decipher them as PT4WD or FT4WD/AWD licking centre diff gearbox. - the EA81 PT4WD gearbox (I’m 99% sure) is fitted with the 1.447:1 and is mounted differently in the gearbox to that of the EA82 gearboxes and the EJ dual range gearboxes that you don’t have. - the pinion shaft on the FT4WD (locking centre diff gearbox) is THE LONGEST Subaru have produced to date. - EJ pinions do not fit without modifying them with the locking centre diff pinion in the mix. I’m not even sure if it’s possible to modify two EJ pinions to make the required length of the EA locking centre diff pinion box. - the locking centre diff gearbox came in two ratios - 3.7 and 3.9. Dual range and single range were both available. Pinions and ratios from the PT4WD WILL NOT FIT! - If you want a DUAL RANGE box you’ll need the AWD dual range gearsets. To make a dual range box from a single range box either requires another AWD dual range box (EJ or EA) or to do a super dodgy and match the lower AWD gearset with an upper dual range PT4WD gearset of the same ratios. Not the done thing. - the OBX front LSD will fit. With the low range you will need to shave the retainer bolt heads on an angle. I also recommend rebuilding this lsd with the spring and cone washer kit available online. - the diff centre in this locking centre diff box is OPEN. An lsd cannot be added to this diff. BUT - with an EJ AWD ring, pinion centre diff (with the factory LSD) and marched housing to the centre diff, and the EA dual range AWD gearsets you can effectively build an EJ dual range gearbox - in an EA case. The EA AWD gearset will fit on the EJ pinion and work with an EJ centre diff. Custom tail shaft, gear linkages and gearbox xmem will be needed. - PT4WD gearboxes are only “good” for their decent/awesome low range options that can be easily fitted to the L series AWD locking centre diff gearbox - no factory EA box came with a front LSD - the AWD locking boxes are rare and spare parts are in the form of other AWD locking boxes Once home and on the computer I’ll post up some picks of my build with the EJ cases, L series 1.59:1 dual range, 4.111:1 diff ratio and shaved crown wheel, locking centre diff and auxiliary oil feeders to help keep low range cool. @czny - I don’t know the process used. What ever is used in mining drilling equipment is what was done to my shaft. I’d expect that other parts of the pinion shaft will break before this weld job does. @IROCDUDE89 - sorry dude, NOT for sale. Plus shipping would practically double the cost! You be better off buying a low km EJ dual range and drop the DCCD centre diff setup in along with the 1.59:1 low range. Cheers Bennie

That’d be the easiest way to go. You’ll find these in the Gen3 Liberty RX and the Outback models. There’s also the EJ253 engine in the mix there somewhere too. I don’t know if this complicated things or not. Cheers Bennie

Unless design has changed in the EJ25 block, you can remove rods without splitting the case. Heads and sump needs to be removed. A pita but doable. Main bearings require the block to be split New rings while you’re there and you’re good to go. Cheers Bennie

Mine was a custom job. The 4.111:1 ring and pinion came from a forester box or a dead wrx single range box. I don’t know what this would cost as I purchased my initial 4.111:1 modified L awd pinion shaft with its matching ring (crown) gear. That wasn’t the best work, and a few years later I sheared off the weld - turned out it only had 2mm of penetration. I was visiting mates 3500km from home, so wasn’t exactly a convenient time for this to happen (better than the middle of the Nullarbor though!!). Through the Subi mate’s network someone knew someone else that owed them a favour - and we got a new shaft made up from the broken one, and the job was done properly this time! The shaft was beveled, had a male stub on one piece and a female section on the other to help mate and centre the two parts together, these were pressed together. Then a specific welding process was used to fill the beveled section with layers etc. it was a very deep weld and a slow one to complete. Then a “cap weld” was done to finish the welding off. This cap weld was then machined flat to the height of the rest of the shaft. Bloody artwork!! It had a slight bend in it - about .1 thou - but then we worked out that the lathe has .04 of free play in the clutch so it was probably a lot closer to dead straight A’s humanly possible. No vibrations so all is good! The most astonishing bit was that the floor manager of the workshop allowed the work pro bono! So a couple of slabs of beer were promptly arranged! To work the cost out though I had a welder and a machinist working on the shaft for close to five hours. It didn’t seem to take that much time while we were there! But it was a bit of involved process - and having the two experts there collaborating with each other sped up the time that it may have taken if I were doing this at home at a local shop. It is well worth the effort, but consider going the 4.44 R180’s are much easier to find in 4.44 and air or elockers are available for this diff - of course mods must be done to make either fit though! That’s my next project!! Cheers Bennie